1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polymer and a surface-treating agent or the like containing the polymer, and also relates to an article treated with the surface-treating agent.
2. Description of Related Art
Silsesquioxane is polysiloxane that has a characteristic structure. The structural characteristics of silsesquioxane include, for example, a cubic inorganic skeleton containing —SiO— units, and organic groups (such as reactive groups and polymerizable groups) bonded to the eight silicon atoms constituting the cubic inorganic skeleton. Various functions, such as enhancement of affinity to various materials, can be imparted to silsesquioxane by selecting and designing the organic groups bonded to the silicon atoms.
Specifically, J. F. Brown, et al. have found that silsesquioxane is obtained from monoalkyltrichlorosilane (J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 87, p. 4313 (1965)), but the method proposed therein is not practical due to a prolonged reaction time required.
F. J. Feher, and J. D. Lichtenhan, et al. have shown a method for introducing various polymerizable substituent, such as a vinyl group, an epoxy group and an acrylate group, to a trisilanol having such structure obtained by removing a silicon atom from silsesquioxane (J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 111, p. 1741 (1989), J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 112, p. 1931 (1990), Organometallics, vol. 10, p. 2526 (1991), Macromolecules, vol. 28, p. 8435 (1995), and Appl. Organometal. Chem., vol. 12, p. 707 (1998)). However, materials obtained by the method fail to satisfy such functions as water repellency, oil repellency and antifouling property that are required for a surface-treating agent or the like.